CHENNAI: One boy had never seen the sea; another wanted to know where to buy his passport.

For winners of RANK (Race for Awareness and Knowledge for students) and BOLT (Broad Outlook Learner Teacher for teachers), part of Air India's corporate social responsibility activities, the competition helped them broaden their horizons and gain new experiences.

Air India, The Hindu and Dinamalar organised an award ceremony on Sunday to honour the State-level winners of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

The nationwide awards were instituted four years ago to recognise excellence outside the field of academics. There were entries from the 30 districts of Tamil Nadu and four districts of Puducherry. The State-level award winners for RANK were Priyanth Kumar Kittappa of PS Senior Secondary School in Tamil Nadu and S.B. Vishnue Prasad of Petit Seminaire Higher Secondary School in Puducherry. As for BOLT, the winners were Josephine Mary Nirmala.J of Panchayat Union Primary School, Tamil Nadu and Z. Zayapragassarazan of Pope John Paul II College of Education from Puducherry.

The students, along with other State-level winners, visited Singapore last October. Priyanth Kumar had this to say about the experience: "We saw the strict discipline maintained in Singapore due to fear of the law even though there were no policemen around." Air India's `Reaching Out Project' aims at promoting responsible and active citizenship. Prince of Arcot Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, chief guest at the event, said education was necessary for people to understand civic discipline in public life.